The Bounty of Bell Smith Springs, Part 5: High-Anxiety Time Atop the Natural Bridge | Shawnee National Forest, Illinois, USA

From a tour guide's perspective, it's one thing to walk around the narrow roof of the Natural Bridge when all alone, and quite another to herd a gaggle of tour participants across it. Half of the group are birdwatchers obsessed with a chickadee on a distant tree branch; the others are the daredevil type too damned curious about what lies over the edge. A misdirected step and unintended nose-dive into the boulders below are all too imaginable.

But then it's time for the guide to do some diaphragmatic breathing, and just relax. After all, everyone is enjoying the lovely spring day, and overtly grateful that you've brought them here. And besides, they've all signed waivers releasing you from personal liability.

As it turns out, those waivers were probably not worth the paper they were printed on. Still, here you are years later, basking in the memory that you lost no one and killed no one and didn't even have a single sprained ankle on all of those trips to darken your name.

And now, peering at this one moment frozen in time, you can turn your attention to an appreciation of nature shorn of all responsibility. You can meditate on the old fork-trunked ash tree, the same one shown from below in Part 1. Or you can ponder the moss-and-lichen-dappled Pounds Sandstone, which 320 Ma before had been a stream deposit in another, much earlier bedrock canyon.

For more on this beautiful and geologically fascinating locale, get a copy of my Geology Underfoot in Illinois.

And to see the other photos and descriptions of this series, visit my Bounty of Bell Smith Springs album.

Taken in: United States / Illinois / Watkins Ford (show map)

Taken on: April 15, 2007

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Camera: NIKON COOLPIX S4, 38mm, ISO 50 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	NIKON COOLPIX S4
Focal Length:	38mm
ISO:	50
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Inpaint
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